‘Axis of evil or access to diesel?: spaces of new imperialism and the Iraq war’

Bieler, Andreas and Morton, Adam David (2015) ‘Axis of evil or access to diesel?: spaces of new imperialism and the Iraq war’. Historical Materialism, 23 (2). pp. 94-130. ISSN 1569-206X

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was waged by the so-called ‘Coalition of the Willing’. This paper will examine how the war was a space in the ongoing geographical extension of global capitalism linked to U.S. foreign policy. Was it simply the decision by a unitary, hegemonic actor in the inter-state system overriding concerns by other states? Was it an imperialist move to secure the ‘global oil spigot’? Alternatively, did the use of military force reflect the interests and emergence of a transnational state apparatus? In this paper, we argue that the U.S. needs to be conceptualised as a specific form of state, within which and through which national and transnational capital operate to establish the interests of a national fraction of an Atlantic ruling class. It is these processes of class struggle and their relation to wider struggles over spaces of imperialism, which need to be at the centre of analysis.

Item Type: Article
RIS ID: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/753972
Keywords: 2003 Iraq war, class struggle, geopolitics, global capitalism, historical materialism, transnational state, U.S. industrial-military-academic complex
Schools/Departments: University of Nottingham, UK > Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Politics and International Relations
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1163/1569206X-12341412
Depositing User: Bieler, Prof. Andreas
Date Deposited: 20 Jul 2016 09:45
Last Modified: 04 May 2020 17:10
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/35172

Actions (Archive Staff Only)

Edit View Edit View